Am"Bush"ed in Israel

Last week I was in Israel with Ro (the boss) during the country's 60th anniversary. This was really surprising to me that the country won it's independence only 60 years ago from the British. I had no idea that Israel was such a young country or that it had ever been occupied by the British. But then again the British empire seems to want to conquer everything. The anniversary also made it an ideal time for President W. Bush to visit Israel for the middle east peace talks. How delightful for us considering that Hamas decided to launch the largest rocket ever fired from the Gaza strip hitting a town 1 hour away from Jerusalem. No need to worry though as Ro and I didn't go to Jerusalem until the following day.

This was likely Ro's last trip to Israel so he wanted to spend some time on a tour of Jerusalem. Some readers may be aware that I took a tour of Jerusalem on my last visit to Israel but I didn't mind going again since it's really a beautiful and historic city and my tour was pretty quick and dirty last time. On this trip we were also able to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. Yad Vashem is an amazing yet eerie place dedicated to the rememberance of the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust. We were only given an hour and half to tour the musuem which was not nearly enough to stop and take in all of the images and stories on display. It would be nice to come back at some point to see the museum in greater detail.

I haven't got much else to write about Israel as it was mostly another exhausting work trip but I did manage to get some more pictures.

Lost in Space

It's been awhile since my last blog posting because I've been a bit lost in space between work, travel, and experiencing London. On top of all this I'm working on a special personal project which I will be able to tell you all about in a few weeks. Since I last left you I've been to Paris and Munich for work and New York for pleasure. Paris and Munich were the usual so there isn't much to say. I did decide to have a bit of a gastronomic weekend in Paris before the work started which included brunch at Rose Bakery, dinner and a show with the open kitchen at Ze Kitchen Galerie, and dinner at Guy Savoy's Atelier Maitre Albert. They were all spectacularly memorable meals.

For the first bank holiday weekend in May (equivalent to Labor Day in the states) I decided to go visit my two very good girlfriends and best boyfriends (Jimmy, Barney, Bergdorf, etc.) in New York City. NYC with these two girls typically means late nights out and long shopping days by myself. I'm a lone shopper in this group since NYC is my favorite city to go shopping outside of Paris but these girls don't quite have the stamina (or the madness to spend a lifetime paying off a pair of shoes). True to form I arrived in NYC at nine on Friday evening (after a 6.5 hour flight) and proceeded to my friend's flat where I had a shower. I was quickly ushered back out the door and didn't return until 3am or 4am, when I returned on my own because the rest of the group was still going strong. The weekend afforded a couple more sleepless nights and some serious shopping between 5th Avenue, midtown, SOHO, and the village. I also did manage to make it out to Hoboken, NJ where one good friend lives and she swears it's the best place on earth. I view it more as yuppie central where the young, up and coming, NYC wannabe crowd commute from but it's cheaper and has good transport links. Along with being able to catch with my girls, I my trip had another highlight. While at baggage claim back in London, I saw Claudia Schiffer! Apparently she was on the same flight from JFK to LHR (in first class no doubt while I was in cattle class) and was waiting for her bags as well. She did look incredible for having just been on a ~6 hour flight with her cashmere pashmina, Prada two-tone bowler (from the fall/winter 2007 collection), Oliver Peoples sunglasses, velvet caramel coloured crop jacket, wide-leg jeans, and caramel ballet flats. I may have just noticed what she was wearing as she picked up her Louis Vuitton Pegase 60 suitcase.

What I've been trying to spend most of my free time on lately though is enjoying the amazing weather in London. For the past week the weather has consistently been in the mid-20s C (mid to high 70s F) which means London is completely transformed. Everyone puts on their shorts, skirts, tank tops, and flip flops and heads out to find any outdoor space available. People are lined on the streets at the local pubs, crowding roof top bars, grabbing sandwiches and laying out in all the parks leaving no inch of green space visible. It was estimated that thousands called in sick this week to enjoy the weather.

I've only got some pictures from Paris over these last few weeks but they're linked on the left.